President Barack Obama Vows Response To The Sony Pictures Hack

President Barack Obama has vowed a US response after North Korea’s alleged cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, which is touted to be the worst corporate hack in history.

Barack Obama stated that Sony Pictures made a mistake in refusing to release a controversial satire depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“We will respond. We will respond proportionately and in a space, time and manner that we choose. We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship in the United States.” stated Mr. Obama, declining to offer specifics. ”

The US authorities linked North Korea to the hack, which saw sensitive studio information publicly released, following which Sony Pictures withdrew the film The Interview following continued threats.

The F.B.I. said that there were significant similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks to previous attacks by the North Koreans. It also said that there were classified elements of the evidence against the North that it could not reveal.

The F.B.I. further addd that some of the methods employed in the Sony Pictures attack were similar to ones that were used by the North Koreans against South Korean banks and news media outlets in 2013.

The F.B.I. is deeply concerned about the destructive nature of this attack on a private sector entity and the ordinary citizens who work at Sony Pictures.

North Korea has been under extraordinary economic sanctions for decades, and it has done nothing to curb either its nuclear program or these cyberattacks. A military response seems unlikely, the White House stated on Thursday (December 18, 2014) that it was examining options for a proportional response, and that would seem to rule out conventional military options.

“The cyberattack against Sony Pictures was not just an attack against a company and its employees. It was also an attack on our freedom of expression and way of life.” Jeh C. Johnson, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.

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Summary: President Barack Obama has vowed a US response after North Korea's alleged cyber attack on Sony Pictures.